Happy Independence Day!!

Happy July 4th to all!!! While friends and family back home are grilling hamburgers/hot dogs, boating on the lake, hanging out on the back deck......I will be eating Brunch at noon....maybe going to Jones Beach....and definitely skipping the fireworks on the Hudson!! I have come to the conclusion that there are just too many people down here in NYC, and on a holiday weekend it is very wise to participate in low key events!!

So, I am done w/Peds emergency at Lincoln. Overall, it was a great rotation. I saw alot of fever, or "My child felt warm and no I don't have a $4.99 thermometer at home but I did just get my nails done for $40" LOL. I also had the opportunity to sew some lacerations....a few scalps....a forearm, but the best was the adult lac I closed. What?? Adult you ask?? Well, here is the story:

I was working on Sunday when a peds trauma came in, 8 y.o. boy was hit by a bicycle while standing on a fire hydrant and he fell. Luckily, the only trauma was to his face, a 2 cm laceration that transected the lower portion of his right nostril from his face. So, the oral maxillary surgeon had to come in and sew it back on and I got to watch!! :) After that, the surgeon says "Student, follow me" and away I go to the adult side where he has 5 people w/broken jaws anxiously awaiting him, and 1 guy who was jumped last night at the bar. He turns to me and says "Can you please sew up that guy" and I say ABSOLUTELY!!! The young man spoke very little english, but I find out that he went out to the bar, got really drunk, was jumped by 4 guys, had a bottle broken over his head, returned home around 3am, passed out, awoke at 4pm in a pool of blood, came to ED. The surgeon was called because the cut was just above the eye, through the eyebrow, about 6-7 cm in length. I was instructed to place 3 internal stitches first, to bring the wound edges closer, and then to sew it up. Then the surgeon left to attend to the jaws. So, about 23 sutures later, I was done. And it was AMAZING!!! The surgeon came and looked at my work and said it was excellent!! By this time it was 8pm, and my shift had been over for 2 hours already....so I packed up my stuff from the peds ED and strutted out of the hospital feeling like a rockstar!!! Then, I headed to Professor Thom's for True Blood, and blabbed my entire story of the day to my friends who were amazed and awed :) Actually, they are medical students too...so there reaction was much more subdued because like all 4th year medical students, they have been there and done that. But still....overall it was an awesome experience for me!!!

What have I been doing since my rotation ended on Tuesday. Well, my application for residency!! I bought my $90 token on Tuesday for use on July 1st...the official day of ERAS opening. ERAS is the service me use to send programs our application. I started filling out some of the tabs of my application. I have until Sept. 1st to complete it...on that day it gets released to the hounds (programs that I am applying to). My biggest challenge right now is completing my personal statement which has been a work in progress since January. I have imposed a deadline of August 1st for the final draft, lets hope I can do it!! I am thinking of employing a secret weapon in my quest to finish this damn statement...of course, I can't tell you what because then it wouldn't be a secret :)

Tueday starts my next rotation, adult Emergency at Maimonides in Brooklyn. I am so excited for this rotation to start....4 weeks is going to fly by!!! Hopefully, I have some good stories and I keep up with the blogging this month!

Well I hope everyone has a great day with family and friends! And I just want to give a big thank you to all of the men and women, present and past, who have put on a uniform and defended this country!! I am very grateful to them and everyday I am proud to say that I am an american!!! Everyone have a happy and SAFE 4th of July!!!